Woot! Back amongst you all at last, with another astounding edition of AtoSY! No long preceding note this time. Just read, review, enjoy, etc. You know the drill!
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Chapter 18
Seduction
"Rauru? Who is my mother?"
Rauru stared at me, obviously surprised. The question had hit upon me so randomly that it surprised myself. Still, when I thought about it, I supposed it was normal enough to wonder. I had never known my mother, for she had died giving birth to me. My father never talked about her. In truth, I had never really cared enough to ask before, Impa having always been my mother figure. But now Impa was gone, and I found myself wondering.
Odd that I really knew nothing about my own mother, not even her name. I only knew what she looked like- there was a portrait of her in the great foyer in the castle. She was a small, dainty thing, delicately built, with blonde hair so pale it was nearly white and enormous, solemn eyes of a midnight blue. I had her eyes.
Rauru was silent for a long moment, as if considering his answer. "Her name was Onine," he said at last.
"Onine." I spoke the name thoughtfully. "Where did she come from?"
Rauru shrugged. "Couldn't tell you that, princess. Your father went away overseas when he was still a prince and came back with her in tow." He paused. "People hated her."
I frowned. "Why would they hate her?"
"For one thing, she was foreign," Rauru pointed out. "You know how proud our people are. Everyone expected your father to marry a girl from Hyrule, but instead he married Onine."
"Why shouldn't he marry who he wanted to marry?" I demanded.
"There was something odd about her, too," Rauru went on as though deaf. "People in the castle said that when she entered a room, the air seemed colder...she didn't blink at all...sometimes she would simply appear at moments when you least expected her; look over your shoulder and there she'd be. Onine." Rauru shook his head.
I felt a strange little chill go up my spine. "That's silly," I said irritably, trying to ignore it. "People want to make a spectacle out of everything."
"Maybe," Rauru replied evenly. "But I'll tell you this, princess- I came face to face with her in the castle halls one time. First time I'd seen her in close person. I knew who she was, of course, but there was no way she could have known me. Or anything about me, for that matter." Beads of sweat appeared on Rauru's forehead, as if talking about this meeting made him nervous. "But she never hesitated. She looked at me with those big, dark eyes and said, 'It consumes Lily.' Lily was my wife, you see." His mouth tightened. "Lily was being consumed, all right, by a disease that had struck her just that day. A week later I buried her. Your mother came to the funeral, and all the while her eyes were on me."
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I never told Rauru about my vision, for fear that he might think I was losing my mind. Sometimes I wondered if that wasn't the truth. It was either that, or else there was some meaning to the blood and my crimson-eyed reflection. I didn't like to consider either possibilities.
After a few months had passed since my vision, Rauru began urging me to find a disguise again. I suppose he thought I'd had enough time to recover from the shock of the castle and was ready to venture into town again. I wasn't. I didn't want to leave the temple until Link woke up and banished the evil in Hyrule. Yet I wanted to help him, too, and to do so safely meant changing my identity. Besides, my skills were growing rusty. There were only so many times I could walk across the temple's rafters before it became rather dull.
Rauru had found my cloak during the three weeks I was sleeping, but no dagger. I suspected the townspeople had dumped it somewhere along with the body of the rotted skeleton creature. Rauru gave me a new dagger and told me to be careful where I lost it this time. In the cloak and armed with the dagger, I once again ventured outside.
The castle town was different yet- it was empty. Perhaps three bartering stands remained where the market square had once been so busy, and very few people were there to buy. I stopped at the stand of a clothes-woman who was busy packing her goods in the abscense of customers.
"Need help with anything?" she said when she saw me, straightening with a groan and fixing me with a sharp eye. She was like all of my poor people- gaunt, worn, tired. Suspicious of the world and everyone in it.
"I'll just look a bit," I replied from under the concealing hood of the cloak, and poked through the clothing that remained in the stand. They were mostly peasant dresses and work clothes. These were no good. Anyone would recognize me in them, peasant clothes or not. Rauru had said to change my identity- surely that meant I needed something radically different.
"Do you have any..." I paused, and went on tentatively, "Unusual clothes, like?"
"Unusual clothes," the woman replied, lips pursed, staring at me as though my question had been highly odd. She coughed into her hand, bent down behind the stand, and heaved a wooden chest, gilded with black iron, onto the counter.
"I have these," she said, her gnarled fingers scrabbling to find the catch on the chest. "Most unusual clothes I've ever come across. Don't even remember where I got 'em from- probably traded some junk for 'em." She found the catch and pulled it; the chest sprang open.
I stared at the clothes. Unusual was most certainly the word that came to mind. There was some kind of bodysuit, like the kind the castle guards wore under their armor, only this one was long enough to cover the arms and legs and colored a dark blue, matching my eyes almost exactly. There was also a white tunic, tattered and torn around the edges, with a highly odd symbol painted on the front- an eye surrounded by a halo, weeping one large tear. It was very ornamental, colored blood red. Looking at it, I was struck with a sense of recognition- the eye was the perfect match of the one painted on a tunic Impa wore.
"Sheikah clothes," I breathed reverently.
The woman leaned over the chest. "Is that what they are? No wonder this costume's so odd. Look at that eye. Gives me the chills, it does."
I agreed. "How much for the whole outfit?"
The woman's eyebrows raised. "You're gonna buy?"
"Yes, please," I said patiently. "How much?"
"You can have 'em for ten Rupees," the woman said doubtfully. "I don't care 'bout making much of a profit off these."
I paid the woman, swept the clothes into my arms, and left the market square. Into the deserted back alleys, my hands full and my thoughts somewhere else. Seeing the Sheikah clothes had brought back a sudden, painful longing for Impa. Six years and a few months since I'd last seen her. I wondered if I might ever see her again.
So preoccupied was I with these thoughts that I didn't notice the man who lurched out of a shadowed doorway and began following me. I had walked deeper into the maze of alleys before I finally realized that there were footsteps behind me.
I barely had time to drop the clothes and whirl around before the man was on me. My wrists were caught in a painful grip and his free hand stifled my mouth. I tried to scream and couldn't. I struggled desperately as the man dragged me to one side and shoved me against a building wall, wedging my arms at my sides and tearing away my cloak.
His hand briefly left my mouth before his lips crushed mine. I could smell heavy liquor on his breath. His tongue invaded my mouth, elicting another stifled scream. My fingernails gouged at his arms, but he paid no attention as he tore at the collar of my shift, ripping it down the front. My heart hammered in my chest. He was going to rape me, and I was powerless to stop him. My eyes darted wildly around the alley, seeking some form of salvation. There was none.
His mouth left mine at last and I breathed heavily. "Make a sound and I'll break your neck," he threatened, voice slurred. His hands were suddenly squeezing my exposed breasts. I uttered a small, choked whimper, tears welling in my eyes. I pushed at him, trying desperately to get away from him and this violation of my body.
He pressed harder against me and suddenly I felt something hard and sharp digging into my waist. After a few moments of mindless terror I realized it was not his erection, but the dagger I wore sheathed on my belt. It was my only hope. I worked one hand to my waist while he was distracted by my breasts, trying not to alert him to my movements. My hand closed over the dagger; I pulled it free from its sheath and struck blindly.
I felt the dagger sink into something soft a moment before the man gave a choked gasp, his movements freezing, eyes wide and rigid. I yanked the dagger free and struck again, and again, and again, wildly stabbing every part of him that I could reach. His mouth was open in a silent scream and his eyes were popping. Blood welled suddenly in his mouth and streamed down his chin, and then he slumped against me, his eyes going dull and blank.
I pulled the dagger free one last time and shoved him away from me. He fell, hitting the dank cobblestones with a wet slap. I stared at him, at his blank eyes and the dark patch that was spreading through his clothes. My hands were shaking so hard that I could barely hold the dagger. I slid it into its sheath and noticed for the first time that my hands and arms were covered in his blood.
I don't know how I made it back to the temple. I vomited in the grass outside the temple, washed my hands as thoroughly as possible in the trough, then went inside and straight to Link's side. Rauru was gone- I didn't know where and I didn't care to know. All I wanted was sleep.
I lay down next to Link and noticed that some blood remained on my dress sleeves. I was tainted, a murderer, stained with the blood of another human being. The fact that he had attacked me was forgotten. All I knew now was that I was a monster. As I drifted off, the last thing I saw through eyes blurred with tears was the pile of Sheikah clothing, lying beside me. I must have brought them to the temple without realizing.
I couldn't care. My eyes closed, and I slept.
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I stood ankle-deep in a pool of water, stretching as far as the eye could see. The surface of the water was smooth as glass and clear as a mirror. I looked down and saw myself reflected perfectly. I was naked, my skin pale, my golden hair tumbling across my breasts.
I sensed another presence and looked up. A golden-haired man stood before me, naked as I was, my height exactly. He was slim, his shoulders my width, practically matching my building. I looked into crimson eyes.
"Zelda." He spoke my name and the word rolled off his tongue, disappearing on a wisp of air, gone. I could not remember it myself.
I felt a warm liquid streaming through my fingers and raised my hands to look at my palms. Scarlet blood streamed from twin gashes. There was no pain. I looked at my companion again, meeting his eyes levelly.
"Whose blood is this?" I asked him. Again the words seemed to disappear, as though they were of no importance.
He took one of my hands in his, raised it to his mouth and slid his tongue across my palm, licking the wound clean. Painstakingly he lapped at my hand and sucked my fingers until not a trace of blood remained. Every drop he swallowed.
He smiled at me, lips crimson from my blood, like a predator whose hunger was satiated. I stared at him in fascination.
"Whose blood is this?" I asked again, my voice so small to my ears.
"Mine," he replied. "The blood is mine." His words wrapped softly around me, lingering, echoeing in my ears.
"The blood is mine."
"No," I whispered, eyes closed, my plea weak and insignificant.
"The blood is mine." His voice wrapped around my mind, paralyzing me with something between fascination and terror.
The predator was present in his voice when he whispered, "So are you."
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Continued in Chapter 19.